Manchester United might be boring their fans with their style of play, but manager Louis van Gaal is definitely keeping things interesting with his unique way of dealing with the press. The Dutchman has attracted attention for his bizarre complaint about Robert Huth’s altercation with Marouane Fellaini.
The incident took place in the first half, when the Leicester centre-back was tussling with Fellaini inside the box. The Manchester United midfielder appeared to elbow Huth in the incident, but had his hair pulled by the former Stoke City defender.
When asked about the incident, Van Gaal angrily defended Fellaini, saying that it was a normal reaction for a person whose hair has been pulled.
“When you see what Huth is doing to Fellaini, that’s a penalty. Your hair is shorter than Fellaini but when I do that, what are you doing then? It’s a reaction,” Van Gaal was quoted as saying by The Independent.
“Only with sex masochism, then it is allowed but not in other situations. They [Leicester] did it. They did it several times I think.
“Huth was the guy who grabbed the hair of Fellaini. I think the reaction of Fellaini is like a human being. He is always like that.”
Van Gaal lobbies for video technology
There was yet another controvercial moment during the 1-1 draw, when Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater brought down Memphis Depay around the penalty box.
While Drinkwater was immediately given his marching orders for a second booking of the match, referee Michael Oliver awarded Manchester United a free kick on the edge of the area.
When asked about this incident, Van Gaal showed support for Oliver saying that it was impossible for referees to accurately spot whether or not the foul had taken place inside the box. He even went on to say that these are the situations for which football needs to introduce video technology.
“To see if it is in or out is very difficult so that is what I have already said. For more than 20 or 30 years I am in this profession and we need the video because the referee cannot do it by themselves and I think he [Oliver] is one of the best referees in England,” said Van Gaal.
The problem with video technology
A number of sports like cricket, tennis and hockey make the use of video technology in order to iron out the human mistakes that can be made by the match officials. However, football has long denied itself the advantages of video technology in order to maintain the pace of the game.
A number of experts feel that introducing video technology in football will cause too many breaks between the match which will have an impact on the tempo.
Even goalline technology was earlier shunned for similar reasons. However, the introduction of goalline technology in the sport has proved to be a great success and has not had any adverse impact on the tempo of the game. Perhaps video technology can have a similar effect on the sport in the future.
